Sixth Instar

That night, the large boy sleeps on top of a piece of colorful material. I try to bite off a chunk of another piece of the material, but that is impossible. So, tiring, I mimic him, sleeping on it instead.

Always, I have woken up and felt ready to rise. Today, however, I wake and want to go back to sleep. There are loud noises. The large boy is not there.

There is a Great One there, though. Not mine. She makes noise, and holds out a branch covered in leaves. Compared to last night's food, it is boring, but I want to eat. I run at her, ready to fight, but she walks away.

I walk where she is walking, but she goes away. Soon, we are not in the place where I slept. There are too many things to look at! It is too bright, too big.

Eventually I become conscious of a noise from ahead of me. She taps the branch against the ground. The branch, yes. I follow it, and her.

There are many more of us in the place where she stops and gives me the twig. I eat it quickly before anyone can fight me for it, but they all have food of their own.

Then a Great One appears. He holds a small piece of material and a round object up in the air so we all see. Then, an image appears above us. It looks like the Great One, holding the material and the object.

The material suddenly changes color both in the Great One's hand and above us. Setting down the round object, he walks over to the back wall and presses the material up against it. He moves it up and down, left and right.

Many Great Ones walk among us, and they give us materials and objects like the first one has. A girl nearby me tries to eat the material, but the Great One yanks it back, waits, then hands it to her again. She does not try to eat it after that. Neither do I.

Once we all have these things, the Great Ones themselves walk to the edges of the room and begin the same motion. Up, down, left and right.

We stand in place, unsure of what to do. The Great Ones beckon us forward, though, and I approach the wall. Am I to do what they do? I move the rag like them.

But no, they don't want that. One of them holds their round object up, makes a slight movement—and then my eyes burn. There is noise around me, and I am dimly conscious of being touched, pulled from the room. More pressing, however, is the pain. I reach up to rub my eyes without really being sure why I want to, but my limbs are pulled back down.

At last, relief of sorts, though this feeling too is strange. I can see well, though, and see that I am in a different place. There are many strange sights, glittering items cluttering the walls. A Great One holds something out to me. It glitters too.

I reach for it, but he yanks it away. Suddenly, it breaks open, and he pulls out something from inside. It is food, like the boy gave me the other night! Instead of giving it to me, however, he walks over to a wall. Then he creates another space, low in the ground by me. He puts the food inside and the space disappears. He touches a green circle on the wall.

A light turns on, and I see the food. I walk towards it, but the Great One is in the way. Then the light goes off and the food disappears. The Great One finds the hidden space, and the food is there. He gives it to me, and I eat it.

Then he gives me another glittering thing. Is it meant for being broken? I set it down on the ground and jump on top of it.

He makes noise, and holds another. Then it is broken, like two children fighting for the same stick. He holds out yet another, and I grab it with one hand. We pull it apart, and he lunges for the food inside, then gives it to me. I move it towards my mouth, but he grabs me sternly and taps the wall. I notice this time that there is a handle there, like a gate latch. He grabs it, and the space appears.

I put the food in the space like he did. Then he makes the space disappear. He points to the green circle on the wall, and I touch it.

The light goes on, then off. I reach for the handle and yank it out. It hits me in my face, and my eye hurts again. The Great One takes me back to my room, where I spend the rest of the day.

The next day, the other boy remains asleep when the Great One comes for me. I follow him to the same room as before. Once again, there is a glittering thing. I pull it apart and hold the food inside. I know not to eat it, but what else can I do with it?

I wait for him to show me what to do, but he does nothing. Carefully, I try the latch again. Very slowly, I pull it out, and put the food inside. I push it back in quickly so that it does not hurt me, then press the green button. The light goes on, and it goes off.

The Great One does nothing. I pull the latch out slowly and take the food out, greedily gobbling it down.

Then he gives me another glittering thing, and I do the same thing.

We do this over and over again. I do not tire of the monotony as long as I get food at the end, but soon I am no longer hungry. That is strange.

So he walks me over to another place in the wall, opening up a duller container with a different type of food inside. We must do the same thing before we can eat this food.

I see no more of the other children. I am always working alone with the Great Ones, for day after day. Later, they show me food that requires red buttons. Some need yellow, some blue, others a vibrant infrared. It is difficult to remember all of these things, so I practice and practice. I eat the food, though some of it does not taste good. The Great Ones eat that.

And then one day, the Great One leads me outside.